


5+1

by matbaerzal



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:48:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23841787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/matbaerzal/pseuds/matbaerzal
Summary: 5 times you take care of your seemingly helpless neighbour TK and the one time he takes care of you.
Relationships: Travis Konecny/Reader
Kudos: 10





	5+1

I  
You’d met Travis Konecny a couple times, running into him in the hallway. Your conversations never went past small talk. You already knew who he was and what he did for a living and even though you never covered the subject during your talks, he knew that you knew. He also knew that you didn’t really care, that to you, he was just a neighbour you talked about the weather with. So when you see him one afternoon in the hallway as he’s about to unlock his door, you don’t hesitate to say hello. Only after noticing his split knuckles, “Jesus, what happened there?” you exclaim. He looks down at his hands “oh, I’ve just come from a game”. “Do you usually end up like this after a game?” you laugh. He chuckles, scratching the back of his neck, “it happens, I guess”. He goes to put his key in the door but fumbles a bit and drops it on the floor. He swears under his breath, leaning his head back and brushing his hand over his face. Meanwhile, you walk the few steps over to him bending down to get his key, going to unlock the door for him. “There you go” you say slightly amused at his reaction to dropping his keys, “thanks” he says with what you think is a blush to his cheeks. “No worries, anytime” you say as you turn back to your own door, smiling back at him one last time before entering your apartment.

II  
It’s not long until the next time you see him, and somehow his knuckles look worse than they did last time. “Another game?” you ask him. He looks confused before he notices you’re looking at his hands. “Uh, yeah, yesterday” he admits, a guilty look on his face. He’s got a couple bags of groceries on the floor next to his already open door, he leans down to take them, but one of the handles breaks, and it falls to the floor, making all its contents spill out on the hallway. You try to contain a laugh, thinking this guy really doesn’t have a ton of good luck. “Shit, that’s just great,” he exaggerates. This time you can’t contain your laugh, going to help him collect some of the items. “You really don’t have to,” ignoring him you continue to collect as much as you can hold. “A thank you would be nice” you joke. He grabs the bag that’s still intact with his free hand and holds the door open for you to enter. “Thank you” he finally says as you get to his kitchen. As you’d been too busy trying to collect his groceries, you hadn’t noticed that somehow the wounds on his knuckles had reopened. You don’t think he’s even noticed himself. There’s not much blood, but enough to have you worried, and on instinct you grab his hand to inspect it. You don’t see the look of surprise he gives you, as you’re too focused on his hand. He finally notices the blood after you say “do you have any cleansing alcohol around?”. “No, I don’t think so” he mumbles, your head shoots up to give him a judgy look. “How do you not have that? You seem like you’d need it on a weekly basis,” you drop his hand and start to walk towards your own apartment. “I’ll be right back” you tell him.

When you come back all his groceries are put away and he’s sat by the kitchen island waiting for you. You place a bag of cotton balls on the counter, take one out, put some alcohol on it and you place the bottle next to the bag. Putting your hand out, you wait for him to give you his hand. You smile when he does and focus your attention on his hand. He winces slightly, but then clears his throat in an attempt to cover it up. You’re too focused on his hand to notice him staring at you, trying to memorize the features of your face. He was rendered speechless the first time he saw you in the hallway, and he kicks himself after every time you two talk. For not being able to hold a proper conversation and only talking about the weather, and other boring, insignificant things. When he told Nolan about his cute neighbour, he’d laughed at him, saying it’s a good thing he doesn’t talk too much around you, that it would definitely ruin his chances and just annoy you.

Now that you’re here in his apartment though, holding his hand, he grows restless. “Have you ever been to a game?” he says before he can stop himself. You’re almost done with his hand, doing the last couple touches, “It’s been a while, to be honest” you admit. “My dad’s a flyers fan, so I went to some games growing up” you continue. “Your dad’s a fan, eh?” he teases, “yeah, I think he’d have a heart attack if he found out you’re my neighbour” you blush. The situation only gets worse when you realize you’re still holding his hand, when you don’t really need to anymore. You quickly drop it and clear your throat, “where can I throw these out?” you ask, referring to the used cotton balls. “Oh don’t worry about it, I’ll do it, thank you for…” unsure of how to say it he just puts his hand up. “No problem, I- uh, I should get going, but I’ll see you around, yeah?” you stress, already starting to leave. “Sure yeah, don’t forget these “ he says, holding out the alcohol and cotton balls, “you can keep those, I think you need them more than I do” you joke before leaving his apartment.

III  
One day a couple weeks later there’s a knock on your door. When you open it, you find Travis on the other side with a sheepish look on his face. He’s holding the cleansing alcohol and the cotton balls in his hands. Once again his knuckles are split, “I was cleaning and stuff, and they reopened, would you mind helping me out?” he says with a shy tone. You open your door wider motioning for him to enter, “I’m starting to suspect you’re a bit of a goon” you laugh. He snorts “me? A goon??” he feigns offence. You lead the way into your living room and sit down on the couch. He places the alcohol and the cotton on your table and sits next to you. “I’d say I have enough evidence to prove my case at this point” you say as you start the cleaning process. You’re not sure if he blushes or if you’re just imagining it, so you focus your attention back on his hand.

“Would you ever want to come to a game?” he says. “I mean, I could get you tickets if you wanted to go to one” he clarifies. His question catches you off guard, not expecting him to offer anything in return for your help. You look up at him, “I mean, yeah, that’d be- I’d get to see why you get into so much trouble” you stumble in your words before deciding to tease him. He chuckles “ok, great. We’re going on the road tomorrow, but we have a couple home games next week. How’s Saturday?”. You smile, thinking for a second if you have plans next weekend, “Saturday works” you conclude. He goes back to his apartment when you’ve finished up, promising to get you that ticket to the game.

IV  
You’d be lying if you said you didn’t find him attractive, and you swear you caught him staring at you the last time you saw him, which made you think maybe he thought the same about you. And then there was the fact he asked you to help him clean his knuckles when he’d be perfectly able to do it himself. And he’d left the cleansing alcohol at your apartment sheepishly admitting he was likely to come to you if it happened again. You couldn’t help but find his helplessness a bit charming. You also had to admit to watching his away games, surprised to see that he only got into one fight, though he looked like he was fine afterwards. Though his attitude on the ice explained why he ended up in fights in the first place, annoying people without end.

You knew he was back home, having checked out his schedule, but you were still surprised when he knocked on your door. You didn’t expect to see him until Saturday before or after the game he’d invited you to. You were in the kitchen making dinner, so you walked over to your door. “Hey, what’s up?” you say when you see him, his knuckles seem fine, so you wondered what could’ve possibly brought him to your door. “Hey, do you have any potatoes I could borrow? I forgot to buy some earlier,” He says. “Yeah, sure. You making dinner?” you reply, walking back into the kitchen to find what he needed. “Well I was about to start when I realized I was missing potatoes” he chuckles. “Fuck, that smells amazing” he mutters as he enters the kitchen after you. You laugh, “thank you, would you like some?”, only after realizing you’ve basically invited him to have dinner with you. You blush, and hope he doesn’t notice. “Sure, I guess I don’t need the potatoes anymore then” he says, smirking. “I guess so” you laugh, “would you like anything to drink?” you offer. You take out two plates and start plating the food, “just water’s fine” he says.

You walk over to the dining table with the plates and motion for him to sit. After placing the plates on the table you go to the kitchen to get your drinks and cutlery. You give him his water before finally sitting down, placing his knife and fork next to his plate. Travis is scanning his brain for something other than the weather to talk about when he takes the first bite. “God, that’s amazing” he hums, his mouth full of food you can barely understand what he’s saying. “You’ve been this good at cooking all along? And you decided to keep that from me?” He says after finally swallowing his first bite. You roll your eyes “So I’m meant to make you dinner now, too?” you say. “I mean I’m already cleaning you up after every fight you have” you continue teasing him. This time you swear you see him blush, and he shrugs “I wouldn’t complain if you did”. “I sure hope not, I’d kill to have someone make me dinner everyday” you joke.

The conversation flows easily between you two from there on, and Travis throws in a compliment here and there. He starts with complimenting the dinner once again, and then he makes a comment about your apartment being nice. Then he blushes again as he thanks you for looking after him and taking care of his knuckles. Which is when you bring up that you’d watched a couple of the games. His whole face lights up “Wait, really?”, “Yeah, I wanted to know what to expect on Saturday, I guess” you admit. With that he abruptly checks the time, “shit, it’s getting late. Look, I hate to be lame but-”, you interrupt him “you have a game tomorrow, it’s ok, I get it”. You blush at the fact that you just revealed knowing his schedule, and he smirks at you, deciding not to comment on it. You get up to follow him to your door, feeling like you could have sat for hours talking to him if he didn’t have to go. He surprises you by wrapping his arms around you in a soft hug, “thank you again, for dinner” he murmurs before letting you go. His hands lingering on you for a moment longer. You’re stuck in your spot, looking into his eyes, shaking yourself out of it, you give him a smile “yeah, no problem, anytime” you finally speak. With that he leaves, making you feel as if your night got cut short, leaving you wanting more. More of what, you’re not exactly sure, just more of him.

V  
You don’t get to see him before the game, but he’d given you the tickets and told you where to go. He’d said you’d be sitting by some of his teammates girlfriends, which you didn’t want to read into. Upon seeing you they asked you if you were TK’s girl, which made you blush, shrugging, saying that he’d invited you, but you weren’t his girl in that sense. At which they just smirked. During the whole game you saw him make great plays and occasionally annoy the opposing team. In the third period he managed to tie the game and then get in a fight in his next shift. He seemed to be fine, but you knew he’d probably make you check his knuckles after the game. They ended up winning the game towards the end of overtime. You’d been at the edge of your seat and on instinct you and the other girls jumped up and hugged each other when you heard the goal horn. You followed them to go meet Travis after the game, having promised him you’d drive him home after.

When he sees you he walks straight over to you, you barely have time to take in how good he looks in his game-day suit before he’s hugging you, you’re quick to hug him back. “How are your hands?” you ask as he lets you go, “They’ll be better after you have a look at them” he jokes. “I’m starting to think I’m just your caretaker” you shoot back. “You’re more than that, you know that” he says as he puts his arm around you. Waving goodbye to his teammates as he starts walking. You quickly wave to the girls you’d sat with, blushing as they’re all looking at his arm around your shoulder. He keeps it there the whole way to your car, and you can’t help but think about how natural it feels there. Like you’ve done this a hundred times. He lets you go when you get to your car, but puts his arm around you again the second you arrive at your building. You look at the hand rested on your shoulder, having noticed earlier that his knuckles are split once again. You take his hand on instinct, “try not to reopen them this time, yeah? I’m running out of cotton balls” you muse. “I’ll buy more, plus it’s a good excuse to come see you” he says like it’s obvious. You laugh “You don’t need an excuse, you can just come and see me, you know”.

You arrive at your door, and his arm leaves your shoulder for a second time. He scratches the back of his neck “Yeah, I just never seemed to know what to talk about around you, and when you helped me with my key that one time, that was probably the first time we talked about something other than the stupid weather” he laughs “and then I acted like a nervous teenager the next time and dropped all my groceries, but then we had an actual conversation, so I figured I’d just use that as an exuse.” he finishes. You try to hide your blush, but you notice he’s blushing too. He takes a step closer to you, his hand brushing up your arm. He hesitantly leans in, and you mirror his action. He’s so close, noses touching, eyes closing. All one of you has to do is take the last step and lean in. But as your phone rings you jump away from him. You scramble to check who’s calling “Sorry, it’s my dad, I should take this… I promised him I’d tell him about the game”. Travis nods, you smile apologetically as you answer your dad’s call. The two of you awkwardly retreat to each of your apartments.

VI  
Travis had to leave the next day, going on another roadtrip. You had his number, but you’d discovered he was terrible at replying to messages so you didn’t speak often. Plus you were both busy with work, so you didn’t have much time to text back and forth. You were left to wonder what would have happened if your dad hadn’t called. It was obvious you would have kissed, but where would that leave the two of you? What would the aftermath be?

The day he gets home you get a text from him, “Can you come help me with something?”. You had just gotten home from work so you text back saying you’ll be over in a minute. Going to change into something more comfortable, but you make sure to still look put together. And when you enter his apartment you’re glad you didn’t opt for the sweats that were calling your name. His lights are dimmed, and a couple candles are lit, and the smell of whatever he’s cooking fills the room. Surprisingly it doesn’t actually smell bad. You don’t think he heard you come in, because when you see him he’s moving to the music by the stove. You lean your shoulder on the wall, wanting to see how long it takes before he notices you. When he does though, he doesn’t stop dancing like you expected him too, his smile just grows, but there is a slight blush to his cheeks.

“How long have you been standing there?” he says, stopping his movements as a new song comes on. You ignore his question, “what’s all this? You got a date or something?” you ask him. “Yeah, and she just got here, right on time” he winks. Now it’s your turn to blush, pretty confident that he’s referring to you. “I realized maybe you feel like I’ve been using you, so I just wanted to do something for you. So you know that I don’t take you for granted” he continued. “And also I didn’t know if you’d actually want to go on a date with me, so I decided to just-” he gestures around the room, not sure how to finish his sentence. “Decided to trick me into one?” you laugh. “Just so you know, I would have said yes” you clarify. “Good, that’s good. Dinner’s almost ready, so just make yourself comfortable”. He behaves like a perfect gentleman, pouring wine in your glass, serving you dinner. “Did you catch this fish yourself?” you tease, knowing about his favorite spare time activity. He laughs “no, if I’d had time to, I would have”. You smile and take a sip of your wine. When you’re finished eating you both go to the kitchen to clear the dishes, you ignore him when he says you don’t need to help. Thinking the quicker they’re done, the quicker you two can move to the couch and address the elephant in the room.

When you finally get settled on the couch, his arm finds it way over your shoulder and you lean into him easily. He’s the first to break the silence, “you’re always on my mind. At any given moment you’re there, and it made me really nervous at first, but now everything just feels so natural” you hum in agreement. “You’ve somehow managed to lure your way into my mind too” you say and he nudges you for teasing him. You look up at him, and he’s a lot closer than you expected, yet not quite close enough. You really hope there won’t be any interruptions this time, though you’re sure you’d ignore it this time around. “I really like you, you know” he says, his eyes are focused on your lips, and as you lean in closer, noses touching, you close your eyes. “I really like you too” you sigh and wait for him to take the final step. His hand finds the nape of your neck before he finally leans in the rest of the way, lips softly touching. The first kiss is soft, almost hesitant, but it doesn’t take long before they’re firmer, more confident. You’re completely wrapped up in each other, time standing still. Not breaking away until you absolutely have to, to catch your breaths. “I’ve wanted to do that for ages now”, “me too” you smile, leaning in for another kiss. Not being able to stop now that you know what it feels like.


End file.
